Garrett Carrot Versus Fisher F-Pulse

mh9162013 · Jul 19, 2021

I've used the Garrett Carrot for a while and I like it. But it doesn't have the sensitivity I want, while still preventing the pinpointer from "overloading" (giving a solid tone or continuous vibrate) too soon.

So I recently bought the Fisher F-Pule in the hopes that it would provide better range to coin-type targets, but either overload at the same point as the Garrett Carrot or at a point that's closer to the probe's tip. Based on air testing so far, it looks like it will do that job. You can see my results in the below pic.

Notice how the F-Pulse gives the same sensitivity on a copper coin when on medium sensitivity (while the Carrot is on max sensitivity), yet overloads or "bottoms out" at almost the same point the Carrot Carrot does on medium sensitivity.

And when the F-Pulse is on the lowest sensitivity, it has the same range as the Carrot on medium sensitivity, yet won't overload until the target is far closer to the probe's tip (when compared to the Carrot on medium sensitivity).

I still need to test the F-Pulse on my soil, but I don't anticipate the real world results differing much from these air tests. Oh, and my Garrett Carrot has the same performance, whether running with a 9v batter or 3 AAA batteries and my voltage booster.

Martin_V3i · Jul 19, 2021

Run that F-Pulse max sens.

mh9162013 · Jul 19, 2021

Martin_V3i said:
Run that F-Pulse max sens.

That's what I plan to do, then carry my Carrot on minimum sensitivity in the limited cases where my F-Pulse keeps overloading, but I still can't find the target.

If that's too cumbersome, I'll just run the F-Pulse on medium sensitivity.

DiggingThePNW · Jul 19, 2021

Love my mi6 and mi4 from xp. My carrot is rarely used.

mh9162013 · Jul 19, 2021

DiggingThePNW said:
Love my mi6 and mi4 from xp. My carrot is rarely used.

I hear ya.

Based on my online research, I think the Mi-4/6 will have the best "closing range" (aka: ratcheting or proportional response) of most mainstream pinpointers.

I was debating b/w the F-Pulse and Mi-4. As long as either could give me the sensitivity (on a coin) of the Carrot while the Carrot was on max sensitivity, but overloaded at the same point as the Carrot while the Carrot was on medium sensitivity, that would have been good enough for me. B/c I was pretty sure either could meet that goal, it came down to whichever I could buy first for a good price.

One of the advantages of the F-Pulse is that it uses AA batteries. While the internal lithium battery of the Mi-4 seems very easy to replace (and could readily use other types of lithium cells if you knew how to solder), I don't like having to deal with that. However, if I got the Mi-4, one of the first things I did with it would have been converting it to AA or AAA cells.

Martin_V3i · Jul 19, 2021

mh9162013 said:
That's what I plan to do, then carry my Carrot on minimum sensitivity in the limited cases where my F-Pulse keeps overloading, but I still can't find the target.

If that's too cumbersome, I'll just run the F-Pulse on medium sensitivity.

I don't understand this what you meant, "yet overloads or "bottoms out" at almost the same point the Carrot Carrot does." What exactly is an overload? I have owned the Carrot and the F-Pulse but can't relate to what you are saying. The F-pulse can mix with your detectors frequency though. You can adjust that. I don't ever recall my Carrot going anything close to overload though. This is odd.

mh9162013 · Jul 19, 2021

Martin_V3i said:
I don't understand this what you meant, "yet overloads or "bottoms out" at almost the same point the Carrot Carrot does." What exactly is an overload? I have owned the Carrot and the F-Pulse but can't relate to what you are saying. The F-pulse can mix with your detectors frequency though. You can adjust that. I don't ever recall my Carrot going anything close to overload though. This is odd.

Overload = the pinpointer makes the same sound (solid tone or full-tilt running of the vibration motor) no matter how far away or close the target is. When your pinpointer overloads but you have no idea where the target it, it's almost worthless.

When you see my attached pic, the further left marks indicate where the pinpointer overloads on the target. The further right marks indicate where the pinpointer first detects the target. The space in b/w the is the closing/ratcheting range. In most contexts, you want the distance b/w these 2 points to be as far apart as possible. But due to the way these devices work, that's extremely difficult to do.

I believe a Fisher engineer (Carl Moore?) used the term "overload" to describe what I'm talking about here.

Martin_V3i · Jul 19, 2021

mh9162013 said:
Overload = the pinpointer makes the same sound (solid tone or full-tilt running of the vibration motor) no matter how far away or close the target is. When your pinpointer overloads but you have no idea where the target it, it's almost worthless.

When you see my attached pic, the further left marks indicate where the pinpointer overloads on the target. The further right marks indicate where the pinpointer first detects the target. The space in b/w the is the closing/ratcheting range. In most contexts, you want the distance b/w these 2 points to be as far apart as possible. But due to the way these devices work, that's extremely difficult to do.

I believe a Fisher engineer (Carl Moore?) used the term "overload" to describe what I'm talking about here.

I never had that happen. Can't you touch the area around the hole and tap the power button to detune?

mh9162013 · Jul 19, 2021

Martin_V3i said:
I never had that happen. Can't you touch the area around the hole and tap the power button to detune?

Seriously? Detuning? It doesn't work very well.

When a pinpointer overloads, there's nothing you can do to give it the closing/ratcheting range it once had when the target was further away.

Detuning is WORTHLESS when you try to do it after the pinpointer has overloaded...at least with the Garrett Carrot. When you do that, the Carrot will overload the moment you move the pinpointer just a few mm.

The trick is to do the detuning at the very exact point the pinpointer starts to first detect a target. However, this is cumbersome to do and it's a lot easier to simply use a pinpointer with a better closing range or adjust the pinpointer's sensitivity to a lower level. Also, it's not a perfect solution, as it doesn't give you anywhere near the original closing range.

I usually did the latter with the Carrot, but it's a time waster. I think with the F-Pulse in medium sensitivity, I can dramatically reduce the amount of times I need to adjust my pinpointer's sensitivity.

CPT_GhostLight · Jul 22, 2021

Here is a useful document I found somewhere that I believe was written by Cal, the brain and soul of the F-Pulse. It has way more useful info than the manual that came with it IMHO. Check out the "Ratchet Retune" and "Batteries & Other Suff" sections which helped me sort out problems with some types of batteries. This should have been included in the Manual:

"The front battery is close enough to the coil that it presents a significant target. The PP is factory calibrated with typical steel-cased alkalines to compensate for this. If you notice a loss of sensitivity or falsing after replacing the batteries, it may be due to the composition of the new batteries, and the unit may need to be re-calibrated. See Advanced Features."

Since I recalibrated after installing Lithium batteries, I haven't had any problems at all. I love my F-Pulse! Now I'm waiting for the F-Pulse-LR to hit those targets past 6 inches... :cool3:

Martin_V3i · Jul 22, 2021

My F-Pulse is as easy to detune as any pointer I have owned. Batteries? The Pulse did have a need for high drain batteries and I quickly went to using high drain, Panasonic Platinums. Detunes for me are a snap, very fast and simple and I'm not doing battery replacements quickly either. For me, the F-Pulse is special. Doe many other owners say their F-Pulse experience is bad with detunes?

mh9162013 · Jul 22, 2021

CPT_GhostLight said:
Here is a useful document I found somewhere that I believe was written by Cal, the brain and soul of the F-Pulse. It has way more useful info than the manual that came with it IMHO. Check out the "Ratchet Retune" and "Batteries & Other Suff" sections which helped me sort out problems with some types of batteries. This should have been included in the Manual:

"The front battery is close enough to the coil that it presents a significant target. The PP is factory calibrated with typical steel-cased alkalines to compensate for this. If you notice a loss of sensitivity or falsing after replacing the batteries, it may be due to the composition of the new batteries, and the unit may need to be re-calibrated. See Advanced Features."

Since I recalibrated after installing Lithium batteries, I haven't had any problems at all. I love my F-Pulse! Now I'm waiting for the F-Pulse-LR to hit those targets past 6 inches...

Oh, I have no problems with the F-Pulse, at least from what I can tell. However, I will try the advanced calibration, just in case my use of Eneloops is diminishing my F-Pulse's performance (which still exceeds the Carrot).

EDIT: I just did the recalibration per the "special instructions" you linked to. I didn't notice a difference in performance, though. Didn't hurt to try.

mh9162013 · Jul 22, 2021

Martin_V3i said:
My F-Pulse is as easy to detune as any pointer I have owned. Batteries? The Pulse did have a need for high drain batteries and I quickly went to using high drain, Panasonic Platinums. Detunes for me are a snap, very fast and simple and I'm not doing battery replacements quickly either. For me, the F-Pulse is special. Doe many other owners say their F-Pulse experience is bad with detunes?

Detunes "work" for me. However, detuning is nowhere near as useful for me as they seem to be for you. Instead of detuning, I want a device with more closing/ratcheting range. But everyone's different; you do you. :cool3:

Martin_V3i · Jul 22, 2021

mh9162013 said:
Detunes "work" for me. However, detuning is nowhere near as useful for me as they seem to be for you. Instead of detuning, I want a device with more closing/ratcheting range. But everyone's different; you do you.

I maybe understand. Are you wanting the "beeping" to keep going all the way to the coin, and not want it to go constant tone around the last inch before touching? I can't do that with any of mine I tried just now, they all go solid tone about an inch from a clad quarter, and no detuning gives the last inch before the quarter without going solid tone. Sorry, if I don't I'm not understanding overload.

If it's the solid tone an inch or further when getting on top of the target, I think that is pretty much an industry standard on handheld pointers IMPO.

Are you actually talking about an audio warning alert, different that the solid tone near a target?

mh9162013 · Jul 22, 2021

Martin_V3i said:
I maybe understand. Are you wanting the "beeping" to keep going all the way to the coin, and not want it to go constant tone around the last inch before touching? I can't do that with any of mine I tried just now, they all go solid tone about an inch from a clad quarter, and no detuning gives the last inch before the quarter without going solid tone. Sorry, if I don't I'm not understanding overload.

If it's the solid tone an inch or further when getting on top of the target, I think that is pretty much an industry standard on handheld pointers IMPO.

Are you actually talking about an audio warning alert, different that the solid tone near a target?

Yes! And not just keep going, but speed up as you get closer to the target.

The TRX is very good at this, but it's not worth the $250 or $300 people are asking. I think the XP Mi-4 and Mi-6 are close to as good as the TRX in this respect, but I just happened to get a good deal on this F-Pulse before I could get a good deal on the Mi-4. The F-Pulse also has some advantages over the Mi-4, too...

Martin_V3i · Jul 22, 2021

Yes, that is too much money for the TRX. I got my TRX directly from Whites many years ago with a coupon I received after sending story following finding a gold ring inside an apartment after a fire. They liked it and gave me $100 in a coupon.

I never thought about the solid tone graduations near the tip, being that I dig mostly with a small shovel. All I wanted was to get the item out of the hole and on top of the pile. That is easy, and then the pile is mined for the target. An inch or two of extra racheting, nearing the target in the hole, really doesn't bother my personal style. The TRX abilities you talk about is likely because it is a "tip only" pointer. It detunes finer by design. I just never thought about that last part a pointers ratchet tones at the actual target.

Dave_e · Jul 30, 2021

I used to have 2 Garretts.

I now carry 2 Fisher F-Pulses.

In my opinion there really is no comparison.

Build quality - F-Pulse
Adjustability - F-Pulse
No interferance with main detector - F-Pulse
Depth - F-Pulse
Runs on 2 AA batteries - F-Pulse
Carl knocked it out of the park with this PI unit.

TorqueMaster · Jul 30, 2021

Dave_e said:
I used to have 2 Garretts.

I now carry 2 Fisher F-Pulses.

In my opinion there really is no comparison.

Build quality - F-Pulse
Adjustability - F-Pulse
No interferance with main detector - F-Pulse
Depth - F-Pulse
Runs on 2 DD batteries - F-Pulse
Carl knocked it out of the park with this PI unit.

Hoo boy are you trying to get me kicked off of this forum? :bouncie:

mh9162013 · Jul 30, 2021

Dave_e said:
I used to have 2 Garretts.

I now carry 2 Fisher F-Pulses.

In my opinion there really is no comparison.

Build quality - F-Pulse
Adjustability - F-Pulse
No interferance with main detector - F-Pulse
Depth - F-Pulse
Runs on 2 DD batteries - F-Pulse
Carl knocked it out of the park with this PI unit.

From what I've heard, the Carrot is more sensitive than the F-Pulse with certain targets.

But these are non-coin targets, so that doesn't matter to me as I primarily hunt coins.

Also, the F-Pulse had a lot of growing pains and was known to be more glitchy than the Carrot.

kac · Aug 2, 2021

PI pointers are less sensitive to tiny objects ie micro jewelry but are imune to ground conditions. I have the ProFind 35 which is close to the Carrot in performance and the Nokta Pulse Pointer. The Pulse dosn't pick up on bits of coal and coke so in some areas is handy in that respect.

Garrett Carrot Versus Fisher F-Pulse

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